INJURIES TO key trio of captain and wicket-keeper Denesh Ramdin, as well as opening batsmen Adrian Barath and Lendl Simmons, were a vital reason for Trinidad and Tobago’s five- wicket defeat to hosts Barbados, at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, on Sunday, in the Third Round of the Regional Four Day Tournament.

Making this pronouncement was Dudnath Ramkeesoon, the chairman of the TT selection panel and also the first vice-president of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB).

Ramdin was struck on his fingers while Barath suffered a blow to his hand while batting in the respective innings, while Simmons, deputising for Ramdin behind the stumps in the Barbados’ first innings, was struck a painful blow to his fingers and will be out of action for at least six weeks.

“I think a number of factors didn’t help our cause,” said Ramkeesoon. “We played well in the first innings when we had a lead. We really lost it, I’ll say, with our batting in the second innings.”

Trinidad and Tobago posted 338 in the first innings and dismissed the hosts for 279. With a lead of 59, TT were restricted to 119 in their second turn at the crease, while the Barbadians reached 180/5 shortly after lunch on the final day on Sunday.

“We lost the services of two of our key players Barath (and) Simmons which means we batted two (players) short,” he acknowledged. “None of the other batsmen really got past 50 which didn’t help.”

The Barbadians utilised the quick and bouncy surface, as they fielded a four-pronged pace attack of Tino Best, Fidel Edwards, Kemar Roach (all past or present West Indies fast bowlers) and newcomer Christopher Jordan. “They came hard at us with their fast bowling,” said Ramkeesoon. “Our captain’s fingers got damaged, he got a cut and he wasn’t able to keep for the entire (match). We really played the game without a (recognised) keeper. And Simmons’ fingers got damaged while keeping.

“When I see the manager (Omar Khan), I’ll get a comment on what transpired there,” he added. “I understand we dropped a couple catches so that didn’t help our cause. We went there with high expectations, the expectations didn’t materialise for varying reasons. “Having said that, we have to rethink now, going into the next couple (of) matches,” Ramkeesoon noted.

Trinidad and Tobago will be hosting the Windward Islands at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain in a Fourth Round showdown from Friday until next Monday.

“We will have now the inclusion of the other players who should be back from Bangladesh, (Dwayne) Bravo and (Kieron) Pollard (while) Ravi Rampaul should be back to fitness,” continued the ex-national and West Indies youth team captain. “We hope that should bring back some strength. “We await the medical reports from the players who have injuries to see if they would be back to full strength,” he said. “I think we have the other matches to really catch up. But we have to improve.”

Ramkeesoon was disappointed in the fact that, in the second innings, the remaining batsmen were unable to set a more formidable target for the Barbadians.

“Denesh got 37 but, apart from that, nobody came to the party and the total we gave them was really inadequate. I think that total in the second innings really didn’t help our cause.”

With regards to any replacement for the experienced Simmons, Ramkeesoon pointed out, “we had (Marlon) Barclay in the team. Being in the 13, that means he would be in the mix.

“It’s a little bit too early to say who (else) would be out and determine who will be in,” Ramkeesoon added. “When we meet to select the team on Wednesday, we would have an idea pertaining to the different fitness levels of the players who got injured and so on.

“We know they would be coming at us with full pace and it wasn’t unexpected what happened to us,” he ended.